Today in preparation for my new HF rig arriving I took a trip to Toronto to buy an antenna and a few odds and sods. I settled on Hustler’s quarter-wave vertical, the 5BTV.
The Hustler 5-BTV is a five-band trap vertical antenna adding 75/80 meter operation to the 4-BTV. It is self-supporting and I plan on ground mounting it.
Here is the documented SWR across the ham bands-
I know this antenna will produce significantly improved long-range results when it includes a good ground-level radial wire system, but I’m going to start with no radials and build those out over time. One reason for this is I was told the antenna comes tuned more or less for an installation with no radials. An even more important reason is that at this point in time I do not have an antenna analyzer to properly set up my 5BTV trap by trap in my backyard.
Here is a video of my 5BTV, just opened but still in the box so you can see all of the contents.
Hustler 5BTV antenna
So, the purchase has been made. I still have no HF rig yet, hopefully, Monday. It’s still too cold out there to install it anyway. The ground is still well-frozen here. That gives me time to plan the installation.
